Why the Democrats pushed for vote on Jeff Wood's expulsion

Last night the Assembly Democrats pushed for a vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Jeff Wood from his seat in response to his three arrests for OWI over the past year. Republicans, who had pushed for Wood's expulsion, opposed the measure. Yes, it is very ironic. Luckily for Assembly Democrats, all irony can be justified in politics.

The Republicans can say that they wanted more time to justify the expulsion resolution. I don't buy it, but it is an argument you want to hear voiced in a society that values due process. However, what is more likely is that they would like to wait for Wood to enter his no-contest plea and then they'll be able to more clearly go after Dems who don't support his expulsion. They all know how they're going to vote. Nass and the other Republicans have already pushed for the resolution.

The Democrats are also probably hypocrites. They want a vote before Wood has a hearing on one of his offenses, in which he plans to enter a no-contest plea. Since the Democrats can claim that arrests without convictions are grounds for expulsion, they are pushing for a vote now, before Wood is convicted again.

Now the Dems could say that although they think the charges are bogus, since they were reported out of committee, Wood deserves an up or down vote as soon as possible. But a more principled position would be to wait until his judicial process is resolved and then make a decision.

The thing is that it doesn't matter. It's just politics. The session ends in a matter of days and Wood is not running for re-election....unless he changes his mind.